


Stage Fright

by PhoenixHaven92



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Angst, F/M, Guilt, Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Killer/Victim, Killing School Life (Dangan Ronpa), Killing School Semester (Dangan Ronpa), Romance, Trigger Warning: Vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29539146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixHaven92/pseuds/PhoenixHaven92
Summary: One small change can change your lifeOr in this case...Save it.What would have happened if Leon had run into someone on his way to Sayaka's room? Would he still have committed the murder that night? The murder that kicked off the killing school semester? Or... would something different take place? Something much more intimate and personal between the two Ultimates.
Relationships: Kuwata Leon/Maizono Sayaka
Kudos: 13





	Stage Fright

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading this random little scene of mine. This is my first story here on Ao3 but I've been writing fanfics for awhile. Any and all criticism and advice is very much appreciated-- I hope you enjoy!

Stage fright comes in many forms, but after all the years she spent as an idol, Sayaka assumed she had encountered them all… yet... here it was again, a panicked pounding, beating away at her chest. The familiar sensation had completely transformed. It felt nothing like it did before taking the stage. Now, she could hear the blood shooting through her veins at a rapid pace. The room was spinning, but it was as if she couldn’t process it. The only thing she could process was the kitchen knife in her hands.

**_Knock._ **

**_Knock._ **

**_Knock._ **

The sensation intensified. He was here. It worked. Sayaka stood up from Makoto’s bed and moved towards the door. Although it was only feet away, the journey felt like hours. It reminded her of walking up onto a stage. The cheering crowd, the blinding lights, it was always so overwhelming that it tricked her sense of time. However, there was always such beauty to those moments. This wasn’t beautiful. It was vile. Evil. Disgusting. But that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except leaving this school and seeing _them_ again. With a deep breath, Sayaka’s persona changed. Her nerves retreated as she put on a face of charisma and seduction and finally opened the door.

Across the threshold stood Leon Kuwata, a piece of paper clutched in his hand. He grinned once he saw Sayaka. His aura of confidence was as strong-as-ever and his intentions became clear as he seemingly undressed her with his eyes.

“Hey, Sayaka--”

“Leon! You got my note!” Sayaka said with a cheer. “Please, come in.”

Leon seemed taken aback by the haste in her voice but was too… preoccupied… to care. Just as she had hoped. He sauntered inside, hands in his pockets, and began to look around.

“Ya’ know, I had expected the Ultimate Pop Star’s room to be a bit more… girly?”

Sayaka giggled. “Oh, I just haven’t had a chance to unpack yet!”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Leon’s back was turned as he glanced around. He was looking everywhere but the places that mattered. He looked everywhere except at the knife slowly approaching his back. It was now or never. Leon was bigger than Sayaka and stronger for sure. However, his guard was lowered for now and one swift stab is all it would take… 

She raised the knife.

 _One_ stab.

 _One_ slice.

That’s all it would take to save _them_.

“Soooo, Sayaka,” he began, a certain smoothness to his voice. “What did you want to tell me--” 

Leon turned as he spoke, too suddenly for Sayaka to retract. His eyes fell to the steel blade, the sight sending a jolt through his body. Every instinct he had been training since the day he could hold a bat suddenly activated. With a perfectly honed reaction time, Leon dove backward and away. Sayaka screamed and jabbed the blade towards him, barely missing. In a blind fury, she continued to stab at the air. Leon practically fell over himself as he attempted to get away. His eyes darted around the room frantically until a nearby shimmer caught his eye. A glittering gold katana laid on the nearby desk. It was like a miracle. A miracle Leon didn’t have time to question. He took the katana into his hands and thrust it out in front of him. 

Sayaka struck the broad side of the blade’s sheath not once, not twice, but three times before finally realizing she had hit metal and not bone. For the first time since the attack had begun, she opened her eyes. Her expression contorted in confusion and shock at the sight of the katana. She had completely forgotten that Makoto had brought it to his room for protection. In the mere moment it took her to process this unexpected factor, Leon switched his grip on the weapon. With both hands securely around the hilt, he swung it like a baseball bat right into the side of Sayaka’s hand. A sickening crack radiated through the air along with a painful gasp. Sayaka felt her bones snap. It was unlike any pain she had ever endured before.

_Oh no._

_No._

_No no no no no no no no--_

_NO!_

Sayaka’s thoughts boarded on insanity as she ran further into the room. Her back collided with the wall behind her, which Leon promptly slashed away at with the now unsheathed sword. The sound of wallpaper tearing echoed in Sayaka’s heart beats. It was far too close for comfort. The pair screamed and swore as they continued to tear the room apart with their blades. Finally, Sayaka stood before the bathroom door. Leon loomed ahead of her, panting heavily and bearing the katana. The pain radiating from her wrist had broken past unbearable, causing her death grip upon the kitchen knife to falter. The entire world turned to slow motion as it clattered against the floor.

_No…_

_I… I can’t die here._

**_I can’t!_ **

In these frozen moments, Sayaka leaped towards the bathroom door-- her only possible safety. Leon lunged forward in her peripheral, but he was too late. Sayaka slammed the door shut, securing herself in the bathroom. Her heavy breaths echoed in the small room. She had no idea what would happen now and it made her entire body begin to break down. Every joint crumbled away under the weight and brought her tumbling to the floor, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

“Please! Please don’t!” she screamed. “Please leave me alone!”

**BAM!**

**BAM!**

Sayaka’s shaking intensified with each thud against the door.

“Leon! PLEASE! I… I need to see them, Leon! I.. I’m sorry! I’M SORRY!”

**BAM!**

**_BAM!_ **

**_B A M!_ **

“I… I don’t want to die… JUST LEAVE!”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Leon listened to her tear-soaked screams. The words were so tortured, so extreme, that it was hard to discern from beyond the door. Faltering against exhaustion’s grip, Leon stopped banging against the door. It was locked. Every girl’s room had a lock. It was no use. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. A sick, twisted idea… but she just tried to kill him. Sayaka Maizono almost _killed him_. She deserved it. She deserved every last ounce of pain. It was only right in life’s grand scheme for him to take this opportunity. All he needed were the proper tools. Leon ran towards the exit. He had to get back to his dorm and grab his tool kit, with it he could pry open the lock and take what karma owed him. However, once his hand pressed against the cold steel of the doorknob, he realized... 

_Shit._

_You lucky little bastard._

Amidst the sobbing and screams still coming from the bathroom came a sudden silence followed by a disgusting wretch of a sound, like someone vomiting. Leon clutched at his own stomach in pain. He hadn’t been struck but pain was still radiating through him, like a headache that consumed his entire body. In that moment he understood-- they were both sick with fear. Leon slowly shuffled back towards the door and knocked against it once more, gentler this time.

“S-Sayaka?” he said, his voice frail from screaming. 

There was no response. No sobs. No screams.

“Sayaka, are you there?”

Still nothing…

“Please, Sayaka, I won’t hurt you anymore…”

The silence grew concerning. Leon thought back on the fight. He was sure the only time he actually struck her was when he hit her wrist, but could he be wrong? Did he… kill her? Was she lying on the bathroom floor? Was she lying cold in her own blood?

He knocked on the door once more.

“Sayaka! Answer me!”

Leon pressed up against the door, hard, and attempted to jiggle the door handle… when suddenly the door popped open. He was genuinely surprised, he never expected Sayaka to actually unlock the door. Lying across from him on the cold, tiled ground was Sayaka, half hunched over the toilet. Her hands were propped up on the rim and her eyes stared into the wall with a haunting expression. Leon moved closer. It was clear that she had thrown up and had been unable to move since. 

“Are you…?” Leon sighed and then kneeled down onto the floor. “Are you okay?”

Sayaka continued to stare, not even acknowledging that he was there.

“I swear to god I won’t hurt you. Hell, even if I wanted to kill you-- and trust me, _I do_ \-- I can’t… you know why? Because that swimmer chick, Hina, and that really buff dude were in the hall when I was walking to your room. They had to of seen me. They’d know I was the murderer right away. I know that’s a stupid ass reason to trust me… but there it is. I won’t kill you, Sayaka. I can’t… All I want to know is why the hell _you_ tried to kill me.” There was yet another long silence. “Can you please just fucking answer me?!”

Slowly, Sayaka’s lips parted, although her expression remained the same.

“I… I had to save them.”

“You said that before… who the hell are _them_?”

“The girls. The girls in my group. My band. I saw them in my video, Leon… I saw the stage in ruins. There were bodies. _Their_ bodies! Are… are they dead? Are they alive? Leon… I… I had to know. I had to do whatever it took to know! Ayaka, Michi, Suki, Miyoko…” Her voice trailed off, crackling in pain.

Leon ran his fingers through his hair in thought. “In some ways… I guess I know how you feel. I have a cousin, Kanon. She’s just a little younger than me. We’ve been close her whole life, she even manages my old baseball team… She… She’s like a little sister to me… and I had to had to sit in this stupid school and watch Monokuma drag her away. God, when I first watched that… I wanted to scream. I wanted to find Monokuma and punch the living daylights outta him!” He paused, grateful that Sayaka probably wouldn’t notice the tears starting to pour down his cheeks. “And I saw her again, just now, actually. When I was pounding on that door, her eyes kept popping into my head, you know? Staring at me. Scared. She was begging me to save her… but killing? It just isn’t the way.”

“Y-you heard, Monokuma. We can’t get out unless we--”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard ‘em. But you honestly believe a thing that piece of crap says? If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you never have to listen to any rules or regulations other people wanna set. You gotta live your own life, man, and my life doesn’t involve anyone’s rules but my own!”

As Leon spoke, Sayaka attempted to steady her breath. Life was slowly returning to her face. With each returning sense came an adjustment period. Eventually, it grew overwhelming and Sayaka’s body collapsed once more. This time, she fell to her side-- right onto Leon. Although taken off guard, he caught her and pulled her up onto his chest for support. With Sayaka’s head cradled against Leon’s shoulder, he slowly moved to look at her injured hand. Although he only moved her upper arm, Sayaka whimpered in pain. One look at the bruised skin and he knew.

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely broken.” He squeezed Sayaka’s shoulder reassuringly. “Can you stand up? If you give me a sec I can patch that up.”

“You can?” Sayaka asked.

“Dude, I’m an athlete-- you have no idea how many gnarly injuries I’ve seen.”

With great caution, Sayaka slowly stood up and began to wobble out of the bathroom.

“Go sit on the bed or something, I’ll be right there,” Leon remarked as he began to search the bathroom cabinets.

Sayaka plopped onto Makoto’s bed. The comforting softness of the sheets seemed to contrast the entire mood of the night. She was absolutely overwhelmed with guilt and pain. Moments later, Leon emerged from the bathroom with a first aid kit. With a low, gentle voice, he began to talk Sayaka through what he was doing. He wiped the blood off her hand with a stinging alcohol solution and then wrapped her wrist in a soft cloth. As he put on the stint, Sayaka couldn’t help but think how surprised she was to hear Leon talk and act this way. He had always seemed so rough and brutish to her. Always yelling, quick to anger… but despite Sayaka almost killing him moments before, here he was, tending patiently to her wounds.

“I wish I didn’t pick you,” she suddenly blurted out.

“Huh?”

“Even though you were stronger than me… faster than me...I picked you because I needed someone close to Makoto and I had seen you two spending time together. I also needed someone who would accept my note and everyone else seemed too on edge-- but I knew that you liked me…”

Leon smirked.

“What? Was it that obvious?”

Sayaka felt her cheeks glow bright red, “It isn’t like that!” she stammered. “I’m just… psychic.”

“Psychic?” he said with a laugh.

“I’m kidding! I just have really good intuition.”

“Cute-- but what the hell does this have to do with why you wish you didn’t pick me?”

“Because… I hope I didn’t mess that up.”

He paused for a moment, glancing up for the first time from securing her broken wrist.

“Well, no offense, but you did kinda try to kill me…”

“I know! And I am so deeply sorry! My actions-- everything-- it is so deeply unforgivable! But… This is the first time I have been completely honest with someone since I arrived at Hope’s Peak. Even with Makoto, I have felt as if I always have to be _an idol_. But you, Leon, even after you saw me at my worst, you’re still here. You still care about me even though I’m not perfect.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m just doing this because I don’t want to get framed--”

“It means the world to me to have a person I don’t have to be perfect around… and I know you will never _ever_ forgive me, Leon, but please--” Sayaka bowed her head. “Please let me try and apologize to you! I’ll do anything!”

“Shit… Sayaka…” Leon muttered to himself as he stood up. 

He looked down at the Ultimate Pop Sensation, at her pitiful bowed head, at her tiny shaking frame. There was nothing that could quench the hatred he had towards her. He almost died! She. Tried. To. Murder. Him. But… once again, he understood. They were both sick with fear. Sick down to the stomach, sick up in the head. In the short time they had been trapped here, despair had already grasped them by their necks, choking out their better senses-- and this was the result. Both of them were nearly driven to murder that night. It was unforgivable in every sense of the word, yet perfectly understandable. Leon bit his lip, cursing his inner optimism.

“Listen,” he eventually continued. “Don’t go thinking that I’m going to forgive you so easily for what you did-- uh… almost did. I got a life to live and I’m not letting anyone cut that short! Got that?!” His sudden harsh tone caused Sayaka to flinch, but he continued. “I don’t care what you or Monokuma do, I am getting out of here alive… so how about we make a bet for when I do?”

Sayaka looked up, confused. 

“H-huh?”

“You can apologize all you want, Sayaka, but I’m never going to forgive you unless we both get outta here. Hear me? You’re not gonna go psycho again, you’re not gonna get all down on yourself, because you are going to make it out of here-- we ALL are going to make it out of here! And once we do, then and only then will I accept your apology.”

“S-so… that’s the bet? If I make it out of Hope’s Peak, you’ll forgive me?”

“Yup-- and you can ask Kanon, I never go back on my bets. Whatever happens, happens, you know?”

Sayaka smiled. Her first genuine smile in far too long.

“I accept.”

“Good. Now, don’t move that wrist much. The bones will need to be set at the infirmary in the morning,” Leon said as he slowly made his way towards the door.

“W-wait!” Sayaka cried, jumping up from her spot on the bed. “Where are you going?”

“To bed, duh,” Leon replied, his lips dripping with sarcasm. “You should too. We’ve both had a real long night.”

“Y-yeah… You’re right.”

And with those parting words, Leon quietly slipped out of the dorm room. The moment the door shut the air felt… darker. For the short time Leon had been in here, the air was filled with his infectious optimism. Sayaka drew in a deep breath, attempting to take in whatever was left. The pain and regret were still working to swallow her, but there was something new inside of her now. Where despair once was, now sat hope. Hope that maybe Leon was right. Maybe Sayaka would be able to leave and find her friends, with all her classmates in tow. Maybe when she did find them, everything would be okay-- it would be revealed that this was all some sick joke. Sayaka sighed and laid down on the bed. She knew that she wouldn’t be getting a wink of sleep tonight, but that was alright. She needed more time to think about what she had done… about what she’d tell Makoto in the morning-- but in reality she knew that this time would be spent thinking about Leon. Deep down, her intuition stirred…

“I promise, Leon Kuwata. I will apologize to you-- we _will_ make it out of here alive… and when we do, I promise to do everything in my power to make this up to you. I will… I will do anything for you, Leon…”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


End file.
